Scotland Trip Days 1 and 2

Nov 3, 20206 min read

My partner and I had booked a round trip to Scotland some time ago and up to the last minute, given the situation with COVID, we were not sure it would go ahead. As it turned out we were lucky in that we could still go just before going into a second lockdown. The idea was that we start along the east coast, drive up to Orkney to see Skara Brea and as much of the island as we could, before driving down the west coast of the country to stay at Skye and visit Talisker distillery for a (socially distanced, COVID safe) tour, before driving back into England. There were a lot more castles, distilleries and gorgeous countryside along the way. Not to mention discovering new ingredients and inspiration to try cooking with them. More on that, along with recipes, later. Lets jump into days 1 and 2 in this blog post.

As always I try to include links to the places I talk about at the bottom of each article.

Days 1 and 2

We set off today to head on our round trip to Scotland, via the Angel of the North, Newcastle and Banburgh Castle and spending the night in Berwick Upon Tweed.

The Angel of the North is located right next to the main road and you could easily see from the road. There is parking right next to the Angel and a short path leading up to it so it was a very quick visit. The visit was rather underwhelming with views onto traffic rather that countryside. There weren’t any local walks leading onto it either if you wanted to explore the local countryside. We went straight off to lunch in Newcastle’s Brewdog as we had not been to that one before and needed to get a stamp in our passports. We didn’t really look around, as we had a castle to visit before heading off to Berwick.

Banburgh Castle was very impressive, especially on the approach up to the hill it was situated on. Once you are inside, it has impressive views out onto the beach and sea, which it directly overlooks. The Great Hall has been done up well for the public with a timbered, vaulted ceiling and displaying tapestries with a random pestle and mortar that came up to my waist. This was my favourite item on display inside, even if it was in the Great Hall as opposed to the kitchens. My favourite room in a castle is always the kitchens and I was disappointed that Banburgh Castle did not have one that was open to the public. I love exploring food preparation and the lives of the common people that used to work within the castle. The library contained a billiard table as well as books, but due to the way most of it was roped off I was unable to look at the titles, which are apparently an eclectic collection of mid-17th and 18th century titles, in detail. The other state rooms contained displays of pottery, armour and tapestries, which were all labelled but with information boards lacking to give more of a context to each room. There were no room guides either to engage with visitors and answer questions. The castle also had a lighthouse as one end that appeared to be used as storage and I am not sure if its a working one. The castle's stables had been converted into a bar utilising the stalls and horse gear as decorations. This wasn’t open on the day but it would be cool to see it working. The best thing about this castle were the views from outside, especially from the beach and with the sun setting behind it. We spent most of our time there, walking in the sandy beach and among the sand dunes.

When we had finished with the castle, we headed to our hotel, Eastwatch Guesthouse, in Berwick Upon Tweed, the northern most English town before Scotland. The town had been subject to many historic border changes, swapping between being English and Scottish, with the remains of a castle and Elizabethan walls with museums covering the history of the barracks and soldiers as well as the prison. The most fully preserved structure that we saw on our way to dinner, was the 17th century bridge crossing the river Tweed and build between 1611 and 1624 to replace a previous wooden structure. On the first night of our holiday we ended up having dinner in an Indian restaurant called Amran’s, where I had the tandoori trout, the whole fish, including the head, cooked in a tandoor until the skin was crispy. The portion was generous and came with roasted vegetables and side salad.

The next day, I managed to fit in a run in the morning and take photos of the beach and 17th century bridge as well as a few other interesting buildings, before going back to the guesthouse, getting ready to set off. The first place we stopped was Brewdog in Saint Andrews for brunch, before exploring the town. Across the road from the Brewdog was the remains of the chapel, with a part of its vaulted roof still supported, that was attached to the Blackfriars Monastery before this came to ruins as a result of the Scottish reformation.

The next place we visited was the castle. Not much of this remains, however it does have some unique features such as the bottleneck prison and its tunnels and counter tunnels cutting through solid rock, made when the castle was besieged in 1546 as part of ongoing hostilities between Protestants and Catholics. The bottleneck prison is a drop beneath the castle accessed through a narrow neck (the bottleneck) before opening up at the bottom into a wider chamber. The only way to access the chamber is through a hatch at the top of the bottleneck. When we had finished with the castle, we went to the old cathedral. This is now in ruins and used as a graveyard, but its sheer size speaks of the importance it once held in Scotland. The cathedral was begun in 1160–2 by Bishop Arnold. Work continued over the next 150 years, the cathedral was finally dedicated in 1318 in the presence of King Robert the Bruce (him of Braveheart fame!), going on to became the headquarters of the Scottish Church. On a slightly sillier note, I do like some of the street names in St Andrews- my favourite was a street called Butt Wynd. St Andrews is a very pretty city and would definitely visit again.

Photos of my morning run

Blackfriars chapel

Blackfriars chapel

St Andrews Castle

St Andrews cathedral

Although our tickets had been cancelled a few days before visiting, we decided to go to Dunnottar Castle, near Aberdeen. The fist time we visited this castle a few years ago we fell in love with it due to the location on an outcrop of rock access by a narrow path and in through a small gate. It was drizzling that day with mist everywhere and the place was enchanting. Although we couldn’t go in this time due to the bad weather, we ended up walking along to another cliff facing the castle to enjoy the views and take photographs, where we had not gone before. It was looking onto the castle that my boyfriend finally proposed to me and I couldn’t be happier that he’d finally done it and at his choice of location. We ended up going onto to explore the are a bit further by going to a rocky beach beneath the castle gate before making our way to our hotel in Inverurie where we celebrated our engagement with a fishcake and haggis suppers due to Scottish COVID restrictions where restaurants closed at 6pm. I am looking forward to experimenting with making my own haggis from scratch and deep frying it to make my own haggis supper at some point. Haggis is normally made with a tasty combination of lamb pluck (heart, lungs and liver), oats and various spices and takes some time to cook. Making haggis supper involves using the same batter as in frying fish to cook the haggis in, and serving it with chips.